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5 Things to Know About the Patriots' Wild Card Opponent: The Tennessee Titans

Here are some things to know about the Patriots' Wild Card opponent, the Tennessee Titans.
Max McAuliffe|
5 Things to Know About the Patriots' Wild Card Opponent: The Tennessee Titans
5 Things to Know About the Patriots' Wild Card Opponent: The Tennessee Titans

The New England Patriots will be playing in a Wild Card game this Saturday. Those words have not been typed since 2009, when the Patriots were blown away by the Baltimore Ravens. 

Now, the Patriots are looking for a different result against the no. 6 seed Tennessee Titans. A team that has been red-hot ever since former starter Marcus Mariota handed over the reigns to a familiar foe of the Patriots - Ryan Tannehill. 

While the Titans may be red-hot, a lot about their team is still unknown to many NFL fans. In order to get a better understanding of the football team coming to Foxboro this weekend, here are five facts about the team and their players. 

1) Derrick Henry won rushing title for 2019 regular season

The talk of the town this week has been stopping Titans runningback Derrick Henry. Last week against the Texans, he rushed 32 times for 211 yards and three touchdowns. A monster display from a monster-sized back, who is hard to take down. 

Henry overtook Browns runningback Nick Chubb for the league lead in rushing with a 53-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter of last Sunday's game. 

These runs are exactly the thing the Patriots will need to prevent in order to stay in the game. The front seven will likely have one of their toughest, if not the toughest game of the season on Saturday. 

According to Football Outsiders, New England has the sixth-ranked rushing defense, while Tennessee has the fifth-ranked rushing attack. Something will have to give and it's either the defensive line or the rushing champ Henry. 

2) Ryan Tannehill is 4-7 against the Patriots in his career

The former Miami quarterback has caught fire this year with the Titans and is not only trying to get his fifth win against the Patriots in his career, but also buck the trend of being 0-6 in Foxboro. 

Tannehill has had the most success against the Patriots in this last decade, putting together four wins against New England in Miami. But can he do it in Gillette Stadium? That's the question everyone is wondering. 

3) Elandon Roberts and Titans' head coach Mike Vrabel in exclusive club

Current Patriots linebacker and fullback Elandon Roberts joined a club on Sunday that only had one member for 17 years. 

In 2002, Mike Vrabel, former Patriots linebacker and now Titans head coach, caught a touchdown pass as a tight end. He would go on to catch 10 touchdowns in his fourteen year career. 

Vrabel was once the only defensive player to catch a touchdown pass from Tom Brady. Now, the linebacker-fullback hybrid Roberts joins him as the only two defensive players to catch a touchdown pass from Brady. 

This stat just illustrates how long Brady has dominated in this league for and also how he spreads the ball around to so many different targets. He will need to do that Saturday with Logan Ryan likely covering Julian Edelman and probably getting help with him too. Needless to say, maybe Roberts will have more targets coming his way. 

Vrabel has a history with the Patriots, which will come in handy while game planning for the reigning Super Bowl champions. 

4) Titans rush defense is strong; many big guys on front seven will challenge Patriots' flimsy offensive line

The Titans have built a front seven full of bigger guys. There is a lot of size on that line and it will be a challenge for the Patriots' offensive line to contain them. 

Tennessee's rush defense ranks 10th in the league, according to Football Outsiders. However, their total defense is ranked as 16th-best in the league, smack in the middle of the pack. Their pass defense is ranked 21st in the league by Football Outsiders. 

By these stats, the Patriots will look to air the ball out more. However, with their recent struggles, it is yet to be seen what approach they will take to attack the Titans' defense through the passing game.

5) Tannehill and rookie receiver AJ Brown both put their mark in record books

Tannehill finished this season with a 117.5 passer rating, which only five other quarterbacks  have done since that stat has been invented. Four of those five quarterbacks won MVP that year. The lone QB that didn't win MVP was Nick Foles, during his 2013 campaign, in which he threw seven touchdowns in one game. 

The other history-maker on this year's Titans squad is a rookie who the Patriots looked closely at in the pre-draft process - AJ Brown. 

The former Ole Miss receiver  was quite convinced after a visit to Foxboro during the pre-draft process that the Patriots would select him in this last draft. Instead, the Patriots selected N'Keal Harry out of Arizona State. Brown ended up in Tennessee and has been Tannehill's number one target without question. 

Brown caught eight touchdowns and had 1,051 yards on only 52 catches, which was good for a whopping 20.2 yards per catch. To put that stat in perspective - the NFL career record for yards per catch is 22.3 by Homer Jones. He was one of only seven rookie receivers to have eclipsed 1,000 yards in a single season from 2010-19. Brown, in his short career, ties Harlon Hill for third all-time in career yards per catch. We will see if he can keep up that historic pace against a cornerback like Stephon Gilmore on Saturday. If he does, it will lead to a troublesome day for New England's secondary. 

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Max McAuliffe
MAX MCAULIFFE

Max serves as an intern journalist on PatriotMaven. 

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